Inflammation is a cause of rapid progression of atheromatous lesion that causes atheroma formation, rupture of a plaque, and intracelial thrombosis. Thus, inflammation plays an important role in the onset of coronary artery disease (Non-Patent Document 1). Recently, several myocardial infarction-sensitive candidate genes have been identified by linkage analysis and/or patient and control correlation analysis using gene polymorphic markers including single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) (Non-Patent Documents 2 to 7 and Patent Documents 1 and 2). Interestingly, it is suggested that a majority of such gene products be associated with inflammation.
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